Skeptical Environmentalist Receives Award in Honor of Man Who Inspired Controversial Book

5/15/2003

From: Jody Clarke of Competitive Enterprise Institute, 202-331-2252

WASHINGTON, May 15, -- If there's one name today that can get a heated debate going about the environment, it's Bjorn Lomborg. The author of The Skeptical Environmentalist is seen as a traitor by the traditional environmental movement, but as a hero to free market environmentalists. On Tuesday, May 20, 2003, Lomborg will receive the Julian L. Simon Memorial Award from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, established in honor of the man who inspired Lomborg's book.

The road to becoming a skeptical environmentalist began when Lomborg, a professor at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, set out to disprove the theories of the late free market economist. Instead, Lomborg discovered that Simon was right about his central point-things are getting better all the time. The air we breathe is cleaner; the water we drink is cleaner; our forests aren't dying out; and perhaps the most controversial-global warming isn't as bad as some environmentalists would lead us to believe.

"I was convinced I would prove Dr. Simon wrong," says Lomborg. "Instead I found most of his theories were correct, which resulted in a firestorm among many in the environmental community."

Simon's wife sees parallels between her late husband and Lomborg. "In the 1960s, Julian believed in many of the same doomsday theories, until he did some research and found out the data didn't support them," says Rita Simon. "Julian was attacked in much the same way as Bjorn is unfortunately being criticized today."

The 2003 Julian L. Simon Memorial Award will be presented to Lomborg at 5 p.m., Tuesday, May 20 at the Capital Hilton at 1001 16th Street, NW in Washington, D.C. the evening of CEI's annual dinner, at which House Majority Leader Tom DeLay will be the keynote speaker. Both Lomborg and Rita Simon are available for interviews Monday, May 19 and Tuesday, May 20.

------ CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. For more information about CEI, please visit our website at http://www.cei.org.